A Montana lawmaker tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of the interior committed travel fraud when he was a member of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, according to three former unit leaders and a military consultant.

In announcing the nomination of Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, a retired Navy SEAL commander, Trump praised his military background. “As a former Navy SEAL, he has incredible leadership skills and an attitude of doing whatever it takes to win,” Trump said last week.

But when Zinke was a mid-career officer at SEAL Team 6, he was caught traveling multiple times to Montana in 1998 and 1999 to renovate his home. Zinke claimed that the travel was for official duties, according to the sources.

He submitted travel vouchers and was compensated for the travel costs.

Two SEAL officers investigated Zinke’s records and discovered a yearslong “pattern of travel fraud,” according to two of the sources. When confronted about the trips, Zinke acknowledged that he spent the time repairing and restoring a home in Whitefish, Montana, and visiting his mother, according to two retired SEAL Team 6 leaders. The future lawmaker eventually told SEAL leaders that the Montana house was where he intended to live after he retired from the Navy.

After Zinke was caught and warned, he continued to travel home and submit the expenses to the Navy. The offense would normally have been serious enough to have ended Zinke’s career, but senior officers at SEAL Team 6 did not formally punish him. Zinke could have been referred for criminal charges, or subjected to a nonjudicial proceeding that would have censured him, likely removing him from the unit. Neither of those things happened, and he was allowed to finish his assignment at the elite unit.

While he received no formal punishment, he was told he would not be allowed to return to the elite unit for future assignments, according to the sources. Zinke continued his career, and he was eventually promoted to Navy commander, the rank he retired at in 2008.

A retired SEAL Team 6 leader said that Zinke wasn’t punished because of concerns over the impact on his family if he was pushed out of the Navy or had his rank reduced.

According to a former SEAL Team 6 leader, the officer who submitted evidence documenting Zinke’s misconduct was “incensed” that he wasn’t punished. Three of the sources said the lack of formal punishment was part of a tradition at SEAL Team 6 of avoiding scandal and failing to adequately hold its officers accountable for criminal behavior and other misconduct.

Zinke was elected to Congress in 2014 as a Republican and was expected to challenge Montana’s democratic senator in 2018.

He has spoken publicly about his career, including in a book published last month about his time in the Navy SEALs. The book details his deployments to Bosnia in the late 1990s as part of SEAL Team 6, but does not mention the misconduct that led to his leaving the unit.

Neither Zinke nor the Trump transition team responded to a request for comment.

Update: Dec. 20, 2016

During his 2014 campaign for Congress, Zinke released his military records, which detail two incidents of unapproved travel to Montana. The June 14, 1999 evaluation cited “lapses in judgement” for travel. Zinke told the Missoulian newspaper that the two trips were taken to scout for possible training locations, and that he was ordered to repay $211 for a flight from Virginia to Montana. Zinke defended his travel to Montana as legitimate, but told the newspaper he was “a little aggressive for a junior officer.”

According to three sources familiar with Zinke’s record at SEAL Team 6, the training research was the excuse he used for the travel, but later admitted to senior SEAL officers that he had, in fact, gone to restore his home. Those same sources said there were more than the two occasions cited in his records, and that SEAL Team 6 officers documented multiple incidents involving fraudulent travel.

All of the sources quoted by The Intercept asked for anonymity because nearly every facet of SEAL Team 6 is classified.

Top photo: Rep. Ryan Zinke discusses leadership and Syrian refugees during a U.S. House debate in Petro Hall at Montana State University on Sept. 1, 2016.

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Soldiers undergoing extreme preparation, training and stress are exempted from small financial lapses. Bulls in Wall Street who won’t even defend their spouses and children commit far serious financial irregularities.

Right… According to the unsealed warrant there were THOUSANDS of TOP SECRET, SECRET, and CONFIDENTIAL emails on the Weiner laptop. But HURRRRRRR the RUSSIANS HURRRRRRRRR.

Meanwhile, it was #HerTime and Americans were #WithHer while Seth Rich’s murder goes unsolved. Julian Assange has all but blatantly stated HE was the DNC emails leak, it was NOT a Russian hack, and he was murdered for it. Which is why Wikileaks if offering a $20k reward for info about his murder.

But please, tell us more how there isn’t an astonishing and incredibly dangerous double standard.

2 flights back home that were improperly expressed…meh, seems like nitpicking. Especially in comparison to some of truely horrific acts committed by some people in war zones. This offense is analogous to a local city counsel member that was chastised for making modifications to his home without obtaining the proper permits. The punishment being proposed would have ruining that politicians career.

See this is what happens when pussies who read and believe what they want to hear like the Lemmings that they are standing for nothing read a baseless an empty article meant to move an empty and useless cause.

It’s quite simple: the guy has no qualifications to do the job as secretary of the interior. He can, however, take orders and do what he’s told. Which is exactly the kind of person the Donald wants in this position. A marionette.

I think that you missed the sentences that says “years long pattern of fraud” and when “caught” he then continued to fly back and bill the navy.
In this chaotic world, we think of seals as among the most honorable of me. He did not lead or take responsibility for his actions. From this story, we see a man who got away with a slap on the wrist and continued with his bad actions. Small wonder his “team” felt betrayed. So do I.

That $211 price on a flight from Virginia to Montana is the deal of the last 30 years. If indeed true make the man head of GSA. Let’s save America big bucks. This dude can find a bargain.
I call BS on the price of that flight.

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), partnered with Facebook to suss out fake news, with help from Poynter and Snopes*, is financed in part not only by Soros and Bill ‘n Melinda–but also by Omidyar Networks. Yay.

So a new Ministry of Truth is good for intercept fans? Although, this doesn’t surprise me because most commenters here stifle any alternate view. Have you heard of the first amendment you idiot? Also, your snowflake comment on “esoteric safe space” is really lame to AVIOD true debate only reinforces and fleshes out your fragility.

I have worked for hte U.S. Government and I am totally shocked this guy was not “allowed to resign,” for starters. Travel fraud is theft. He is a thief. A sneak thief. If we can’t agree on basic limits to behavior, how are we to govern ourselves?

At least he wasn’t a senator who used a private government plane for person travel. This man has more balls than all you journalists combined. Let’s not forget Barak Obama added more debt to the USA than all Presidents before him combined. The idiocy and irrelevancy of you anti-Trumpers is laughable. Get a life, you lost the election.

“when Zinke was a mid-career officer at SEAL Team 6, he was caught traveling multiple times to Montana in 1998 and 1999 to renovate his home.”

Oh the horror! The Intercept has bravely uncovered a scandal that will plunge Western Civilization into chaos!

Of course Hillary Clinton’s millions of dollars she received while Secretary of State doesn’t matter. Even if some of the money was from Russian interests to get her to approve the Uranium One deal, oil interests, so she could approve pipelines … and of course misogynist middle-east regimes that push gays off of buildings. But the Intercept can’t talk about her shameless enrichment while SOS … because she has a ‘D’ by her name … and as we all learned from the Intercept philosopher kings: ‘Trump bad. Hillary good!’

the demo leaning who’ers are trying to run the WHATABOUTERY game to distract to take the focus off the “russia did it” scam which was scripted in hollywood (land of hellary donors) march 25, 1968. And simply updated to a different technology.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qseVUcy7Wto
– watch from time marker 11:50 on, a couple minutes
make it viral – make sure the Team Trump sees this

btw – the “russia did it” parc is all about OWNERSHIP in the economy.
the country, the people, own their energy support whereas in US its all privitised
Crooked Hellary arrange the privitisation of PEMEX

yes!
using an insecure email
laundering billions through a private charity.
supplying weapons do dictatorships, isis and drug cartels.
defamation of rape victims.
invading sovereign countries.
stealing furniture from the White House
using the security services to slander his enemies.
any of these things would fully discredit them….

If you ever wondered why every accusation out of Hillary’s campaign perfectly correlated, point for point, with exactly those things Hillary actually was and did, it wasn’t by accident. It was a concept originated and refined by the Clintons’ former solutions provider, Larry Nichols, in the 1980s.

the paranoid genocidal zionistas in israel are deathly afraid of the US and RUSSIA being partners and getting along. It is because of several things –
1. what Russia might reveal about the murder of Seth Rich, WTC hit, involvement of cia in elections around the world, and the operations of the mossad
2. the practicality of public ownership of natural resources and life support services
3. the end of the YINON PLAN to take all the land in the middle east by getting Americans to fight the wars, die in the wars, and take the blame for the attrocities
4. the relationship between the occupants of BUILDING 7 and the OWNER OF BUILDING 7http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/736223/9-11-tower-Building-7-collapse-fire-conspiracy
5. all parties benefitting from the murder of SETH RICH
6. what israeli zionists are up to day by day
7. the currency exchange fraud
8. stock market valuation fraud

Of course Hillary Clinton’s millions of dollars she received while Secretary of State doesn’t matter. Even if some of the money was from Russian interests to get her to approve the Uranium One deal, oil interests, so she could approve pipelines …

As The New York Times detailed in 2015, Hillary and her husband Bill were at the center of a deal that “gave the Russians control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States.” Those responsible for engineering that deal gave millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, which “were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors.” Hillary herself approved the deal as Secretary of State, while Bill personally “received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”

Sounds like another fine Trumpian choice. Why not promote another ‘leader’ of America’s failed wars? That the guy used taxpayer money to fix up his house is a small price to pay to have superheros among us. Let us not forget that he is a member of the fabled group that sneaked into Pakistan and wrecked an expensive helicopter in the process of breaking into an old man’s home and murdering him.
A perfect choice for a post-democratic Amerika.

new law
the AMERICAN WAY PRESERVATION ACT
Unless a person can pass an issues knowledge test, that person shall not be permitted to vote on the issue. Unless a candidate can pass a test regarding history, american values, the declaration of independence and constitution, and which laws pertain to these values, they shall be prohibited from holding any elected or appointed of public office.

the new laws are simple and are designed to declare to define the abstract directives of the constitution (revised version) and declaration of independence (revised version). The new laws set the boundaries for all rules of implementation. The DOI & USC (revised versions) are the grantors, the new laws being the scope or spectrum of relationship sets. Then upon force of vote to institute the new laws, the congress is then confined/restricted from trespassing and can only prescribe rules in accordance with the new law by citing the reference to which the rule applies.

the congress we have today are mostly persons with malfunctioning brains, dimwits, and high functioning morons.

Coming from a military family and having worked with the military, two things were quite evident. First, they cover each others’ backs. Second, they are always gaming the system, both legitimating and illegitimately, to get the most benefit for themselves. Their focus on pay and benefits is so strong, there should have been a pay code specifically for the amount of time on duty spent reviewing their pay stubs, reviewing benefits policies and checking on their investments.

Most of these men and women have never seen, and will never see, a shot fired in anger. We overpay the lifers in the military, whose chief qualification is unquestioning adherence to orders and processes no matter how inane. Every time, we have to go through the now routinized expressions of appreciation for these “heroies”, it makes me gag.

Then you’ll never be worried. Which says a great deal about you. (And, actually, some on the left have had very limited praise for a very few things such as this. Premature; Trump doesn’t stick to half the shit he says.)

The big story, well, one of them, is the MSM never mentions that the Pentagon has not been audited in ten years. We are talking missing trillions (not billions).
The record-keeping is so poor nobody knows. Notice how this chaos mirrors our fine military-industrial complex efforts in the ME and elsewhere.
Our hysterical debt/deficit brownie scouts can’t seem to orient themselves toward looking into military spending.

If you recall, Air Force One is a callsign for aircraft the president is on (i.e. AF One, Marine One, etc.) not a particular aircraft. The Air Force has many suitable smaller aircraft that could safely and securely transport the president in slightly less luxury, most of which have a per hour cost below the 747. This would not be much different than his using the Marine One helicopter for short hops. In fact, I’m quite certain a cost benefit analysis would demonstrate that customizing two large Gulf Stream class aircraft for the exclusive use of the president and vp within secure US airspace would generate significant savings in the medium and long term as operating costs would surpass the expense of the custom aircraft (even including F-16/15/35 escort). For overseas and official business outside US airspace he would, of course, use the large 747 AFOne with all of the technology and counter-measures.

In reference to your sarcasm, you might want to look up the callsign “Executive One”.

The National Taxpayer Union Foundation has studied presidential travel, determining earlier this year that Obama has officially had the second-most flights abroad of any president except for Bill Clinton. The organization, however, does not track campaign travel separately and we can only imagine how much was spent on trying to salvage Clinton. So I think it’s safe to say Obomba has traveled the most on AF1.

So, besides naming the Butcher of Fallujah to be Minister of War (oh, wait, it sounds so cuddly and civilized when you call him Mad Dog, and Secretary of Defence, but it’s the same guy, doing the same thing) his Interior Secretary (Interior being a nice way of describing the person who’s job it is to refuse to abide by the treaties with the native population) is someone who used to be part of a non drone death squad.

Trumps has a typical fascist pattern of choosing for members of his cabinet, just like Benito and Adolf did,corruptible individuals, that is how he controlled them. As well as known industrialists, hungry for power, something which he rarely actually rewarded and used them under this illusion for his war effort while providing slave labor.

The presence of the Pied Piper on this 2015-themed cover is downright unsettling. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a German legend about a man who used his magical flute to lure away the children of the city of Hamelin, never to be seen again.

This folkloric figure dating from the Middle-Ages is said to represent either massive death by plague or catastrophe, or a movement of massive immigration. It also perfectly represents today’s youth being “lured” and mystified by the “music” of mass media. Conveniently enough, there’s a small boy right under the Piper’s flute.

Does that tie into all the Illuminati, Satanic mind control plots you used to go on about? Enquiring minds, and all that.

So far I feel unimpressed. The main issue to me is that military people (hopefully!) do their most important work outside of the country. They all are due a free ride back home. So where is home, and when are they allowed a free ride back to it? Sounds like a technicality to me.

Of course, Trump’s focus on military appointees is worrisome, inasmuch as it suggests he is eager to get into renewed and even more expensive military fiascos. But the appointees themselves might represent the last check on the phenomenon Trump represents. Whatever else, the military *does* have a sense of honor, even if it isn’t particularly comprehensible to the rest of us, and they might hold him back when no one else can.

Hold Trump back from what? Not wanting to implement bad trade deals like TPP? Not wanting to agitate in bellicose warmongering with Russia? Not wanting to undermine the Bill of Rights? Not wanting to force people to buy corporate product? Not wanting to lie about what’s on his mind at any given time?

Falsehoods fly out of Donald Trump’s mouth with such unstoppable frequency that it’s tempting to describe him as a liar. Among the recent Trumpian untruths is his claim to have seen a video showing “thousands and thousands” of Muslim Americans cheering 9/11 in Jersey City, New Jersey, an event there is no record of, video or otherwise. Trump has also retweeted and vigorously defended the claim that 81 percent of whites who are murdered are killed by blacks (the actual number for last year is 15 percent).

…

Yet the increasingly frequent tendency of Trump’s critics to label him a liar is wrongheaded. Trump is something worse than a liar. He is a bullshit artist. In his 2005 book On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt, emeritus philosophy professor at Princeton University, makes an important distinction between lying and bullshitting.

…

Frankfurt’s analysis works extraordinarily well in explaining why Trump is so unfazed when called on his bullshit. Trump’s frequent response is to undermine the very possibility that the truth of his claims are knowable.

…

This claim—that he’s telling the truth but that there can be no proof of it—is in some ways more insidious than the initial falsehood. It takes us to a post-truth world where Trump’s statements can’t be fact-checked, and we have to simply accept the workings of his self-proclaimed “world’s greatest memory.” In effect, Trump wants to take us to a land where subjectivity is all, where reality is simply what he says.

The anti-intellectual (which is not equivalent to anti-elitist) strain on the right is in ascendancy with Trump; truth and fact are irrelevant for him and many of his supporters. This is dangerous on multiple levels.

Well, see, right there, that’s not what I would call “success”, Mona! Not even close. *true, some people may like sitting on gold-plated toilets (have you seen the interior of Trump’s penthouse @ Trump Towers; it’s all Gold!) … but it’s just not my style, sis./

I think this is extremely important when trying to evaluate Donald J. Trump … that is; whether he is truly “successful”, or not.

>” … is not “vacuous” or unintelligent.”

Well, you got a point there. I heard ‘ol Norm Chomsky say Trump was “vacuous” (but not unintelligent), and thought it a bit … undefined. :)

In terms of intelligence, I would call Trump “cunning” … for lack of a better word.

I would disagree with Norm’s characterization of Trump as totally “unpredictable” (norm thought that very dangerous, and that I agree with). Judging by his actions so far as POTUS-elect … I predict, at the very least, a change is gonna come.

If we’re here six months later and Trump hasn’t started a major new war, or hasn’t bodily assaulted the Bill of Rights, or hasn’t either turned Obamacare into the same mandatory insurance without the subsidy for the poor or else gone back on his word about the TPP, then I’ll owe you an apology. With pleasure.

Sound like a technicality to you? Sounds like a recipe for looting the state and setting up a privileged class of people within the country. We are a nation of laws. If you break them you should have consequences. If you don’t like the rules, lobby to change them. I’m sure most service men would love to have unlimited domestic travel, but until that becomes the official policy, this guy is a rule breaker. Service members are not above the law. Societies where military members are above the law are not called democracies.

Anonymous sources?
Come on now, and no JAG involvement and subsequent promotion and full retirement.
You should have your ass kicked for publishing this NON-journalism piece.
Le the country move forward without any half-assed hit pieces from what I have (in the past) considered reliable journalism. This shit piece is beneath the guy that Edward Snowden trusted with his life.
SHAME ON YOU! SHAME!

As a purely practical matter, the purported level of fraud was fairly minimal. The fact that he was candid about it with Navy investigators probably weighed heavily in the decision to treat it lightly.

As a Commander in the navy, Ryan Zinke would have started out making 62, 600 in base salary. commanders are also provided with a monthly housing allowance of $2,297.14 and a monthly food and drink allowance of $253.63 which adds up to roughly 93, 000 per year.

Reported earnings and net worth in 2014:

Ryan Zinke — The Whitefish Republican running for Montana’s lone House seat reported personal assets worth from $1.1 million to $2.5 million. This includes homes and property in Whitefish and Kalispell, household goods and art.

Zinke, 52, a retired Navy SEAL commander, also reported between $215,000 and $550,000 in liabilities, including mortgages on two homes and a truck loan. He also reported earning $215,000 in income last year, including $52,000 from the On Point Montana security consulting firm, where he is CEO; $40,000 from Continental Divide International, where he is CEO; $85,000 from STWA, a Santa Barbara, Calif. energy-related company where he is a director; and a $24,000 salary from his wife’s family trust.

Ahhhhhh, yes….the author brings up the most notorious and extreme points to make regarding his ‘fraudulent’ travel charges and that the subsequent events/effects led him to have to repay the WHOPPING $211.

WoW.

So, if the author wanted to do a Fraud Piece on this guy, wouldn’t it be more revealing to actually use an example of some larger amounts, IF they existed?

The mere fact that the author points to this as the example just shows how weak his evidence is regarding this story.

Here is a quote from the ONLY linked provided.

He said his travel expenses for seven years were audited. He was ordered to pay back $211.

7 years of of travel audited and they only asked him to repay $211. REALLY? That’s your idea of ‘fraud’.

It’s my idea of petty theft like stealing a box of pencils or a nice stapler.

Rape, Pillage and get that Booty”
The American Way!
~”Corporate Pirate Barbarianism” is Alive and Well All throughout the World!
$hiver Me Timber$!
The Skull & Cross Bones Flag… She Flies Forever with No One to Stop Us!
Bribery+Infuence=Death to All Others!

This article clarifies how Trump learned of Zinke: Whitefish Montana, home of Mercer family, boy wonder /hater who is oh so proud of his White Nationalist ties. A call to action by the anti-Semitic ‘The Daily Stormer’ revealed the names and personal contact information of Jewish people they claimed had ‘harassed and extorted’ the parents of white supremacist Richard Spencer.

This article tosses around the word “fraud” way too loosely. Anonymous sources calling it “fraud” is not enough. It is Mr. Cole’s responsibility to perform some actual due diligence before publishing unsubstantiated claims, not after (via an “Update”) a commenter points out existing documentation that casts doubt upon the article. Looking through those 85 pages of evaluations, what I gleaned (other than his social security number…) was that his “lapse in judgment” on the travel vouchers was an anomaly amidst a never-ending narrative of drooling praise.

Now your sources say (and the article title states) that they uncovered a “pattern of travel fraud” but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Two instances does not constitute a “pattern” and according to Zinke’s account, only one instance resulted in him having to pay back money.

Now it’s indeed possible that the guy dishonestly used the Seal training location explanation as a pretext to renovate his house and visit his sweet ma. However, it’s also possible that the guy’s intentions were legitimate and he used the opportunity to visit his mom and renovate his house, only later realizing the fault of this action – the appearance of abuse, misuse, or even fraud. Regardless, there’s simply not enough supporting evidence to conclude one way or the other.

Here’s what the Zinke said about it in 2014:

“Was I perfect?” Zinke asked. “No. Was it embarrassing to me to have nine years of travel claims formally reviewed and audited? Yes. You know what, if I were to do it again, I would have done things differently. I learned a valuable lesson. My lesson learned is you’re accountable.”

Perhaps more light will be shed on this during his confirmation hearings, but this is some pretty bad reporting.

No. Two instances over a decade plus career is not a “pattern.” And only one of those instances resulted in the guy having to repay money. Some of you are trying so hard to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Well, this is the team that shot a defenseless old man (before they’d identified his DNA as that of their target), and then suspiciously claimed to dump the body into the sea – so they’re evidently basically a bunch of cowboys with oxygen-deprivation to their stupid brains from brutal training techniques.

Congress have no such excuse for their stupidity, however, for theirs is merely a matter of finance.

RT (hell even Sputnik) has proven to be a far superior source of news than our CIA MSM every day of the week over the last 3.5 years. At this point our CIA MSM can barely keep up with their own lies and misdirection leaving the actual pursuit of truth to independent now blacklisted investigative journalists and members of the International Press.

THIS STORY WILL CONTINUE TO BE MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN TGHE THREE INTERCEPT PIECES CITED BELOW: Russias ambassador to Turkey is assassinated right during the liberation of Aleppo by Syrian and Russian forces. No western CIA controlled MSM are on the ground in Aleppo yet the CIA controlled MSM spent most of the last week remotely accusing Russian and Syria Forces of “war crimes” and “genocide” even as the UN Security Council voted unanimously to support Russias and Syrias proposal for UN observers to monitor their ongoing humanitarian evacuation.

Exactly RPDC. Wikileaks as well. No its not a question of deep pockets or the availability of quality of legal counsel so perhaps they’ve (Pierre, Glenn, Laura and Jeremy) struck a deal of some kind with the PropOrNots CIA handlers regarding elements of the Snowden archives going forward?

This need not be a nefarious self keeping the Intercepts founders OFF the CIAs MSMs and Capitol Hills current PropOrNot list of “Vladamir Putins Useful Idiots” list.

Still since many of those in power would prefer to bury Snowden than to praise him something seems way off. I genuinely can’t picture Glenn, Laura or Jeremy saying anything but fuck you to an accommodation with the CIA or Capitol Hill unless it serves the greater good for the greatest number as in the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Or maybe they’ve got the real goods on the CIA and (god bless them) the spooks don’t want to fuck with the three musketeers or its game over,

I’m expecting a piece any day from Greenwald about why it’s okay for the MSM to connect blowback terrorism in Russia with Russia’s military actions, but not blowback terrorism in the U.S. with America’s military interventions. It would be a good point to make.

As for why the Intercept wasn’t on the McCarthyite blacklist, perhaps the listmakers are supposing this place will soon go full retard-establishment (as it seems to be inclined lately) and didn’t want to be proven wrong by Robert Mackey (who would?).

I’m expecting a piece any day from Greenwald about why it’s okay for the MSM to connect blowback terrorism in Russia with Russia’s military actions, but not blowback terrorism in the U.S. with America’s military interventions. It would be a good point to make.

The issue of MSM hypocrisy wrt blowback is a point he’s made many, many times over the years, but always worthy because people seem to need reminding. Here’s a particularly good article from the Graun days that discusses several such instances:

Those caveats to the side, the reports about what motivated the Boston suspects are entirely unsurprising and, by now, quite familiar:

“The two suspects in the Boston bombing that killed three and injured more than 260 were motivated by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials told the Washington Post.

“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ‘the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack,’ the Post writes, citing ‘US officials familiar with the interviews.'”

In the last several years, there have been four other serious attempted or successful attacks on US soil by Muslims, and in every case, they emphatically all say the same thing: that they were motivated by the continuous, horrific violence brought by the US and its allies to the Muslim world – violence which routinely kills and oppresses innocent men, women and children:

He goes on to list four other attacks where the words of those perpetrating them pretty much lay it out quite clearly.

Because The Intercept is time proven as reliably progressive left wing, including as a proponent of globalism as beneficent. And thus belongs in the same pantheon as WaPo, NYT, CNN, NYDaily News, Salon, HuffPo, Comcast, Disney, Viacom, et al.

Here’s a link to Zinke’s hometown newspaper that carries a lot of articles about him, including this one from today. It’s a better source than the Missoulian for news about both Zinke and Richard Spencer.

Around 3:45 I commented here, pointing out that it was odd that all the sources for this story were anonymous given that Zinke’s commander, Larry Bailey, had publicly made this information known over two years ago in a letter he issued:

Hi Dan, some comments are automatically held for moderation (this is mentioned in our comments policy). I check the comments a few times throughout the day and approve them. I’m not sure why it appeared the comment was posted at first, because it should have automatically been held.

The man is no longer in the service, he has spoken openly of his involvement with SEAL Team 6, including in a book he authored that was recently published, and all of the unnamed accusers are, likewise, allegedly former SEALS.

As for not wanting the identity of SEALS known, if that’s the case, someone should probably tell them to stop awarding the eagle-and-anchor pin and wearing it on their uniforms.

My understanding is that personnel matters are covered. Among other things, they don’t want the matter of WHO is a SEAL, or on which team, revealed.

Now that may be understandable during a SEAL’s tenure on active duty. And if that is your understanding it should be quite easy for you and/or Mr. Cole to cite to and link the law or regs that forbid disclosure.

Notwithstanding the existence of those laws and/or regs, either Zinke or the military has voluntarily disclosed (or “unclassified” as you will) his status and a portion of his personnel records.

So while it may be good enough for you that Mr. Cole hides behind some boilerplate . . .

All of the sources quoted by The Intercept asked for anonymity because nearly every facet of SEAL Team 6 is classified.

. . . it isn’t entirely understandable or “good enough” for some of the rest of us, because in this instance with both voluntary disclosure of portions of his personnel file, existing coverage of this precise issue in other news sources, and some degree of likely “declassification” of the investigations via those voluntary disclosures/reportage, this piece still comes off as weak sauce political hit piece without quality attribution to human or legal sources and good explanations for why Cole granted those particular “anonymous sources” anonymity for their claims.

And all that’s independent of the fact, Cole apparently couldn’t be bothered to find the Missoulian piece and quote or include it until The Intercept’s readers found it for him before “rushing” his big story of “fraud” to press. Weak and lazy, IMHO.

You know as well as I do that the burden of pleading and production for a claim of civil “fraud” is higher than for other sorts of civil claims. So either Zimke’s superiors in the military chain of command, and in their legal discretion, didn’t think it rose to the level of “fraud” but rather something lesser (oversight, overzealous, fudging whatever), or there is actually a cover up of actual “fraud” by the potential Interior Secretary of the Trump Administration (not that this sort of allegation won’t be common with Trump’s picks), in which case it should be investigated thoroughly and reported on accurately and completely, otherwise it is by definition a political hit piece particularly the way it is framed and anonymously sourced.

Fair enough? We can all agree to disagree, but even with the correction this piece still qualifies in my book as a piece of crap as far as journalistic integrity and good practices goes.

<blockquote.And if that is your understanding it should be quite easy for you and/or Mr. Cole to cite to and link the law or regs that forbid disclosure.

I don’t care enough to research it, but I know they are not supposed to talk about who is SEAL, who was on what mission & etc, until it’s declassified. In my general reading I’ve encountered that classification about SEALs and their missions is very closely held.

Also, SEALS are a tight outfit where loyalty is probably even more enforced than among cops. There are several reasons I can see for giving these men anonymity — besides, as near as I can tell, Zinke doesn’t even deny it.

You won’t, because it just isn’t true. Like all special operations units, members of the SEALS are discouraged from talking about duties, missions, even general locations of missions — and much of what they do and know may often be classified.

But it simply isn’t a secret, or otherwise classified, that someone is or was a SEAL.

This is what I get for staking out an opinion on something I don’t know as much about as I usually do when I…stake out an opinion. I did read a lot about SEALS a few years ago and was left with a strong impression that the whole thing is shrouded in vast secrecy, including who is on what Team for what mission. But that’s not the same level of knowledge I have about, say, Israel-Palestine or free speech law.

Doug, I was recalling stories like this. At some pint I also read about controversy regarding discussing SEAL involvement in Somalia. The SEALS were not supposed to be revealed.

They are a highly secretive organization and members have gotten in trouble for releasing information about their missions. Many of their medals are secret, and classified. But, yeah, obviously if they publicly wear badges the mere fact of being a SEAL can’t be a secret.

Well Mona, I’m going to have to agree to disagree with you particularly if you can’t be bothered (or “dont’ care enough”) to back up your assertion about classification practices, laws or regulations.

I don’t accept, generally speaking, another’s “general reading” on any topic as definitive in any way, and I used to think you didn’t either.

But as you’ll note above, @ Dan‘s comment, it appears despite your contentions about classification, one of Zinke’s former commanders spoke openly about the allegations. Any guesses as to whether or not, as Mr. Cole asserts, he was subject to criminal referral?

1) there are now two documented sources giving further evidence in support of Cole’s crappy unsourced piece, and one of them is openly from Zinke’s commanding officer discussing supposedly “classified” personnel matters (in opposition to your and Cole’s unsubstantiated assertion all such things are “classified”) and referencing a redacted copy of his DD-214, and yet Cole didn’t or couldn’t be bothered to include them in his piece.

2) Moreover, Cole lazily offers a bullshit excuse why he granted anonymity (all things SEAL are classified ipso facto can’t be discussed and would cause a criminal referral for any who did whether active duty or retired) to his sources, two purported SEALS, when Zinke’s commanding officer is on record about the events already. Why not talk to him and quote him openly if he had personal knowledge of the events in question and was willing to talk on record?

The who thing strikes me as lazy clickbait partisan hacker bullshit under the circumstances, and that you are defending it in any way, is both surprising and farcical.

A MONTANA LAWMAKER tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be secretary of the interior committed travel fraud when he was a member of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, according to three former unit leaders and a military consultant.

Normalizing corruption with quibbles and snits.

As Trump and his assorted State and commercial allies assemble to enforce their new world order, complaints about travel vouchers in the military amounts to a teaspoon of urine spooned into a landfill of toxins and sewage.

A very old adage, variously attributed, never intended to convey a literal interpretation about decay of fish but a moral one about decay of organizations. Literalists, of course, would pretend to miss the point.

The political process assures only rotting heads are on offer, leaving partisans to choose which rot they will promote as virtuous.

LEVERAGE
Just for fun one day some years back i decided to see the value of power and corruption in American hierarchies – when i had seen this advertisement for a very highly paid position with a world class corporation.

There were lots of entries of course and i myself was highly unqualified for the job – so i decided to take the schmooze road. On my pre interview i donned rags, literally, but presented flowers to the secretary along with a message to the decider – the ceo.

My message was – “under the table ok”.

of all people in the country applying for this cherished position i was 1 of 3 selected for the final interview.

Do you really think that travel vouchers are a big deal in the military? Travel in the military is a fiasco that should not be an issue – if a military person wants to go from here to there, just pay the bill for him. Please.

The only real consideration here is LEVERAGE – is there anything else that someone can manipulate his decision making process? other stuff? how about dual citizenship?

YOU WILL NOTICE something about Trump’s picks –
a whoooooooole lotta military

FOREIGN POLICY –
in the past decades – since vietnam, US foreign policy as been dictated (vis-a-vis advisors as proxies) by israeli citizens – beginning with kissinger.

kissinger SURROUNDED key decision makers in the American government of by and for the citizens of the US.

over the years, key persons in the American government have become SURROUNDED by israeli citizens. – perfect example – general Petreaus was SURROUNDED by Frederick and Kimberly Kagan – israeli citizens.

Oh the glory and glamour of fame an glitter – to step away from the poverty of humble and modest. What’s that sin? Vanity? Under the guise of writing that book and becoming all that important. What is it, some Americans are afflicted with a character deficit disorder? What – the draining of cash from the currency system which causes impoverishness and leads to insane dependencies because a man can no longer fetch his own food and falls victim to a character disorder?

OWNERS vs DOERS. We are back to that. The media was very angry when Hellary lost – they thought the fix was in. They had the double and triple count going in Michigan and wonder WTF went wrong so they got backup plan Jill Stein to initiate a recount…. They just wanted to influence a US election by interference –http://observer.com/2016/10/2006-audio-emerges-of-hillary-clinton-proposing-rigging-palestine-election/
And then they wanted to influence an election in Egypt – it didnt work so they arrested the democratically elected leader and installed a puppet man just as they did in IRAN in the 50’s – they installed the shah.
And just as they deposed a democratically elected person in the Honduras and installed the puppet guy there.
And they wanted to do the same in Syria – talk talk talk talk while arming the terrorists there to murder or remove the elected person there – Bashar al Assad who exercises religious tolerance like an American.

Yet it isnt enough for the husband to tolerate the religion of his wife. And his tolerant wife did not insist that her husband change his.

Religious freedom my a_s_s.

And they got very very angry when Russia solved the problem of terrorism (hillary provided for the arming of terrorists by helping the cia get arms from libya to terrorists in syria) in Syria. Problem solved wthout US negotiations for 50 FRIKIN YEARS.

And thus the plan to break up the middle east has been thwarted and the yinon plan put off. But persuing that plan with the cost of American lives is not a real problem for some people.

I like the way this administration is shaping up. It has a tax cheat to help catch tax cheats. It has someone who helped start a war using false claims to stop people starting wars using false claims. And now it has someone who filed fraudulent expense reports to root out fraud.

O/T, but interesting – Whitefish Montana is very much in the news now. White nationalist Richard Spencer’s mother Sherry Spencer, who lives in Whitefish, made a statement about how local realtor Tanya Gersh threatened to organize a boycott of her business and harass her with protesters outside her vacation rental building, unless Spencer agreed to sell the building, publicly denounce her son, and donate a portion of the sales profit to Montana Human Rights Network. When Spencer folded Gersh offered her services as realtor:

On November 22, Gersh and I spoke on the phone. She relayed to me that if I did not sell my building, 200 protesters and national media would show up outside?—?which would drive down the property value?—?until I complied. Gersh’s other conditions included that I make a public denunciation of my son in a statement written by the Montana Human Rights Network and that I make a donation to this organization from the sale of the property. As Gersh announced on Facebook, she was “spear heading” the campaign.

Richard Spencer’s antisemitic troll army then proceeded to launch Twitter attacks at the Jewish activists pressuring Sherry Spencer to sell. Here is the lede in The Verge’s version of the story, “Neo-Nazis are targeting Jewish people in small-town Montana”:

White supremacists made calls last week urging their online supporters to harass Jewish people in Whitefish, Montana. The anti-Semitic attacks come after Sherry Spencer, mother of prominent white nationalist and alt-right leader Richard Spencer, claimed the reaction to her son’s views hurt her real estate business in the town. Her statements have since fueled the online vitriol of trolls, who’ve labeled Jewish people there with the Star of David and even directed harassment at a child.

I think if The Intercept is going to be consistent on a principle re: anonymous sources, then it should be consistent. It isn’t fair for us as readers to bash one journalist here (say Schwartz or Biddle or whomever when they do it) for a practice and not bash all journalists here for the same practice.

There isn’t a single link anywhere in your piece to corroborate anything, not even something as simple to verify as:

Zinke was elected to Congress in 2014 as a Republican and was expected to challenge Montana’s democratic senator in 2018.

Lazy. The entire thing reads like one big gossip column.

There at least needs to be an explanation (by you and every other “journalist” here) re: why certain “anonymous sources” refused to go on record, why you felt their anonymity should be protected under the circumstances, the lengths you went to corroborate their anonymous claims (i.e. that you attempted to contact certain named individuals or agencies, and what they said or didn’t when questioned, and if you have corroborating proof provide it), and then let your readers decide how much “weight” to give “anonymous unsubstantiated claims” by anonymous sources.

This highly problematic practice, without explanation, of why an “anonymous source” is used and why readers should view such “anonymous claims” as credible (both in your eyes as journalist and the reader’s), has got to stop. It is too easily abused for a wide variety of reasons, becomes lodged in the public consciousness as “facts” without objectively verifiable proof, and often amounts to nothing more than gossip in the absence of proof.

This practice is really getting to be a problem here at The Intercept and seems contrary to some of its founding principles. You generally don’t see Glenn Greenwald or Scahill doing it very often without explanation.

Ok, so I took someone below to task for this same objection, but I agree that without explanation and without links to substantiating information it can be problematic. The link supplied by Mark Sletten below, is here:

There are, of course, narrow circumstances in which anonymity is not only justifiable but crucial — namely, when whistle-blowing government officials risk their jobs or even careers to divulge damaging information that the Government wants to hide — but that obviously isn’t how anonymity is being used in the vast majority of cases by Beltway journalists, such as those documented here.

1st. Good find on the Missoulian story. We are updating our story to reflect his claims about the “FitRep.” Our sources specifically describe his explanation as the cover story for his travel to Montana, and they describe his travel fraud as more extensive than the two times cited in the evaluation.

2nd. This story was done quickly so we will also update to explain why we gave anonymity to our sources. The larger point there is that nearly everything about SEAL Team 6 is classified, and speaking about the command on the record opens them for a potential criminal referral for disclosure.

Fair enough. But the fact that before and after a SEAL team member period of service is over, even events like this cannot be disclosed is highly relevant to why they were granted anonymity. And it might be helpful to link to precisely the law that requires that non-disclosure both during and after active service.

Moreover, “rushing” a story to print (particularly under these circumstances–what exactly was the “rush” anyway that you couldn’t give the story a few more hours to provide links and explanations before publishing it?) is another highly problematic journalistic practice.

Additionally, since the Missoulian story indicated Zinke voluntarily released his personnel records, why it is that others who have personal knowledge of those records (whether they be SEALS, in a “command position” or not) are not allowed to comment on them for fear of “criminal referral”.

There is a big distinction between “nearly everything about a SEAL Team member” being “classified” and Zinke presumably with permission of the military waving some of the responsibilities or duties attendant to handling of “classified” material.

Presumably you are aware that “selective disclosure” by non-anonymous government or military officials of classified or unclassified materials is a very effective means of propaganda manipulation, correct, because it decontextualizes the material and is incomplete?

Those circumstances should be explained as well (legally and otherwise) in granting anonymity. IMHO.

2nd. This story was done quickly so we will also update to explain why we gave anonymity to our sources.

You also need to explain what evidence your sources supplied that supports their assertions, or some other reason, if there is one, that leads you to accept those assertions absent said evidence.

The larger point there is that nearly everything about SEAL Team 6 is classified, and speaking about the command on the record opens them for a potential criminal referral for disclosure.

As others have pointed out, you need to specify exactly what section of the USC or UCMJ applies here and, further, I’d very much like to know how it could possibly apply to retired or former member revealing financial misconduct by another former member, unrelatated to any operation by the unit. Quite frankly, I very much doubt that it does, or, if it does that it could withstand scrutiny by our courts.

Finally, as rrheard as asked, why the rush? The Senate isn’t going to be considering this nomination tomorrow, is it?

Would The Intercept prefer to be known for “getting it right” or “getting it first?”

The larger point there is that nearly everything about SEAL Team 6 is classified, and speaking about the command on the record opens them for a potential criminal referral for disclosure.
? Reply

That’s another good point, if any of these individuals who have personal knowledge of “financial misconduct” or “fraud” by a service member, outside the operational functions of a SEAL team, and they wanted to come forward through the right channels, that is classic whistleblower protection stuff or qui tam suit material.

Moreover, I’m sure much of went on in this matter was “classified” and theoretically subject to the same purported non-disclosure laws or USMJ regs, but that didn’t stop the lid from being blown off of that monumental illegality, bribe-taking and fraud engaged in by many many high ranking officials in the Navy.

And last I heard the Navy SEALS were part of the Navy and Zinke’s purported “fraud” or “misconduct” is chicken feed compared to the above.

So Mr. Cole how about let’s cut the bullshit about why it is so important to run a story like this without documenting accurately the legal bases for granting anonymity to those you did, and not just “and nearly everything the SEALS do is classified.”

travel voucher fraud?
give me a break – no actually, give him a break.
military personnel get shuttled around all the time and guess what – what if the US had to instead pay for the travel of the family to always be near the soldier?
Look – military personnel need all the travel expense breaks they can get.

The larger point there is that nearly everything about SEAL Team 6 is classified, and speaking about the command on the record opens them for a potential criminal referral for disclosure.

I certainly caught that in the article Mr. Cole. And that’s fair and reasonable, considering the circumstances (h/t 2xr). .. Seal Team 6 is so secretive you pretty much have to rent the movie Zero Dark Thirty to even get a glimpse of what they do, at all.

But the ‘larger point’, surely, must be Donald J. Trump will soon be the fucking ‘command’ and he is one crazy sum-bitch … from way, way back.

There really should be some supporting links in the piece. It seems pretty obvious to me why SEALS Team 6 members would want anonymity, but Cole still should have said why it was granted. The complete absence of links is bad.

Well I’m not sure why “former SEAL Team 6 members” would want anonymity if they can back up their claims, because if they can they can’t be sued, and their military pensions can’t be fucked with.

I can speculate why “current SEAL Team 6 member” have legitimate reasons for anonymity (operational, career and legal), but that doesn’t obviate, in my humble opinion, the need for an explanation in all cases on principle from the reporting journalist.

It should not be left to the reader’s judgment why it should or should not be “obvious” as to why the journalist did or did not decide to grant anonymity in any particular case. Leaving it unexplained then renders credibility entirely subjective and a function of the reader’s values in terms of choosing which types of anonymous claims or sources are to be viewed as credible (which is always the case one way or the other but beside the point).

And that’s what I’m getting at. It is not good journalism practice on its face, not because any reporter can control what people choose or don’t choose to subjectively value or believe, but the journalist can engage in best practices to document consistently why or why not they choose to grant anonymity. IMHO. It’s what Glenn used to say was a practice of good journalism in any event, if I recall correctly.

anonymous sources is one method of being led by the nose.
it’s a con game
it’s power tripping
it’s cowardice in action
it’s the implementation of the “trust me” “just trust us” 3 card monty gambit
it’s the “we know better than you” directive of capture over captive ploy

All of the sources quoted by The Intercept asked for anonymity because nearly ever facet of SEAL Team 6 is classified.

Explanations for anonymity are important so we can judge assertions that lack evidence.

I am curious if Matthew Cole could find out if the sources think the crime reported exceeds the crime committed to report it–from a moral standpoint of course.

Because if these guys are rebelling against classification in general (I am firmly in support of this position), there have got to be much better tales they could tell out of school than this one.

If not, then this seems like they could possibly be using the classification system as a way to make assertions without evidence.

The reason Snowden was so influential is that he provided evidence. His identity was irrelevant compared to the weight of the evidence provided.

Unsupported personal assertions are really a terrible reason to use anonymous sources. There may be exceptions, but those exceptions are probably better saved for something important.

Also, have there actually been enough total seals in existence ever to make the idea that granting anonymity gives them any protection at all? It’s kind of like granting anonymity to a “Starting linebacker for the New England Patriots”–that short list is going to be pretty short.

Thanks to rrheard for coaxing this anonymity explanation from the Intercept and for general ass kicking.

Too often we see anonymous assertions offered without evidence from reporters, and in order to bolster these anonymous assertions we are offered very reassuring, yet still somehow anonymous, descriptions.

“High ranking NSA official”
“Persons present at the meeting”

These description aren’t used to protect an anonymous source from a government leak investigation–if anything this is a short list of who to investigate–these descriptions are used to enhance assertions without evidence by arguing from authority. Anonymous authority–a wonderful contradiction.

Anonymity wasn’t granted in those cases to protect a person from those in power knowing who they are, anonymity was granted to protect a person from the the public knowing who they are.

The first question of anonymity: Is anonymity used to hide from power or the public?

why were these sources granted anonymity? the reason(s) need to be stated, especially in a case where someone is being accused of serious misconduct. (are all the ‘former unit leaders’ still active? if not, what would be the justification for granting anonymity to one who’s retired?) the reader shouldn’t have to assume that the anonymity is justified. no reader should ever make that assumption

Well Mona it may be obvious to you, me and the vast majority of readers, but as a function of good journalism it still needs to be explained adequately, consistently, and in all relevant respects as a matter of good practice.

If this is the level of fraud that we’re faced with from the incoming administration, we should be celebrating in the streets.

Biden’s family is soaking up corrupt petrodollars in Ukraine.
Hillary is a class unto herself.
Kerry has laundered $10M to his daughter through the Peace Corp.
Holder was the architect of the Marc Rich pardon.

Looking at the Trump Cabinet, I would imagine that there are corruption scandals exponentially worse than a SEAL team member submitting travel vouchers for personal trips home.

I’m not saying that we should applaud the conduct, but it strikes me as akin to the otherwise safe driver who regularly goes 7 MPH over the posted speed limit. When the outgoing Administration is running a program called “Fast & Furious,” and the incoming Administration is worth more than the bottom 50% of Americans, I suspect that we have bigger whales to fry.

Use “unnamed officials” to indict Russians for hacking the DNC? No can do. Use unnamed officials to indict a former Navy officer for fraud and Seal Team 6 leadership for negligence and dereliction of duty? No problem! You can’t have it both ways guys…

Speaking as a retired military “official,” I can tell you the military’s reward/punishment system may seem flawed, capricious and unevenly applied to outsiders, but that’s because military Commanders are given extraordinary flexibility and lattitude in the methodology they use to enforce the rules. Sometimes stomping on someone and making an example is the right thing to do. Sometimes there are other factors at play that make it the wrong thing to do.

Zinke paid back $211 worth of disputed travel expenses when he admitted guilt. In addition, his conduct was documented in his fitness report for that period, which given the remainder of his career is likely the primary reason he never attained the rank of Capt (O-6). THAT was his punishment, in my opinion the right punishment for that circumstance. Why force out of the military someone who is otherwise a very capable, effective officer? The savings in training costs alone to replace him far, far exceed the funds he misappropriated.

Use “unnamed officials” to indict Russians for hacking the DNC? No can do. Use unnamed officials to indict a former Navy officer for fraud and Seal Team 6 leadership for negligence and dereliction of duty? No problem! You can’t have it both ways guys…

As a retired military “official” – why do you put quotation marks around official? – one would think you’d understand the difference between government officials using anonymity to spread propaganda without proof and the need for anonymity for individuals who are reporting “official” misconduct at risk to themselves. I can’t lay my hands on Greenwald’s article explaining the difference, but perhaps someone else reading this can find it and share for your edification.

Also, as you note by linking to a story in the public domain, it’s not like these anonymous officers’ stories couldn’t be confirmed using alternative sourcing, unlike the anonymous assertions we’ve been thus far subjected to wrt election shenanigans.

Sometimes stomping on someone and making an example is the right thing to do. Sometimes there are other factors at play that make it the wrong thing to do.

I agree with this and, perhaps, this is one of those cases. But I would venture to say that, as a card carrying member of the public in whose service – yes, SERVICE – the new administration will be acting, I deserve to know details like this about the people Trump is vetting for duties. Thank you for sharing the other article which I will also factor into my thoughts on this choice.

I used quotations marks around the word official to highlight the absurdity. We are asked to take the second-hand word–with no corroborating evidence and/or explanatory statements from the author–of unnamed, sources with official-sounding titles. Anyone can claim to be an official, even me. I can say I served for 20 years in the USAF, and even show you a DD 214 with my name on it. Even if I’m telling the truth, how does that qualify me to pass judgement on the character of an individual with a distinguished military record, and the leadership of a distiguished military unit…based on an incident that occurred nearly 20 years ago?

Thus, with irony, I refer to myself as a retired (retarded according to my 2-year-old granddaughter) military “official.”

Also, the two sources quoted by the author are idenfied as “retired,” like me. Therefore they have no fear of damaging their military careers. The only part of the story corroborated by the link I offered is that the incident involved accusations of travel fraud. Left out was the fact that Zinke had an official reason to travel to the areas he visited. I’m not saying what he did was right, but based on the punishment he received this seems more like an appearance problem than a criminal problem.

What I mean is most military units are concerned about appearances, both internally AND externally. People get into trouble all the time because their conduct gives the appearance of inpropriety, even though there is no actual impropriety. Say an officer runs into an enlisted member who is in their chain of command off post at a local watering hole. The officer forgot to bring money, and asks the enlisted guy for a few bucks to buy a drink. The officer did not say, “Buy me a drink, or I’ll trash your next fitness report.” But there is the appearance, right? Officers don’t borrow money from enlisted people in their chain of command, at least not publicly. It’s bad optics.

Commanders have a strong motivation to bust people that are clearly engaged in conduct prohibited by the UCMJ, mainly because of the kind of scandal we are discussing if they let something slide. But when it comes to appearances offenses, punishments are more like warning shots. Make no mistake, Zinke was punished, just not directly. Promotion is based almost exclusively on what is contained in your fitness reports. When you are sitting on a promotion board to select 10 people out of 1500, all of whom have no history of misconduct, the slightest negative comment in a fitness report is enough to get your record in the reject pile.

Further, the comment regarding concerns about the impact of punishment on Zinke’s family strike me as far-fetched. I served as a First Sergeant, and I consulted frequently with my commander regarding punishments for wayward Airmen. Never once did we discuss the impact of punishment on an individual’s family. We talked about how a fine for financial irresponsibility (yes, not paying your bills is a punishible offense under the USMJ, which is why everyone loves to loan money to military people) would be counterproductive, but not whether or not an airman’s family would suffer due to a particular punishment. There was never any hesitation to give the boot to incorrigables if their conduct warranted it.

Thanks for the further expositions. I still think the information provided, if not exactly the way it was done, is something the general public should be privy to as it would be a much better world if our political office holderss were subject to the same scrutiny wrt appearances of (im)propriety. :-s

I think your objections to the anonymity in this article are supported by your, and others, comments. My only objection remaining is to the “can’t have it both ways” statement and I think I explained that, and Mona linked to Greenwald’s own explanation as to the difference in the thread above.

And this,

Thus, with irony, I refer to myself as a retired (retarded according to my 2-year-old granddaughter) military “official.”

I’m not apolgizing for Zinke’s behavior; I don’t even know the man. I’m saying based on my reading, and given that Zinke went on to serve nearly an entire decade following this incident without controversy or further disciplinary action, I believe his leadership made the right decision at the time in not trashing for a single $211 mistake what was up to that point an otherwise stellar career.

Two SEAL officers investigated Zinke’s records and discovered a yearslong “pattern of travel fraud,” according to two of the sources. When confronted about the trips, Zinke acknowledged that he spent the time repairing and restoring a home in Whitefish, Montana, and visiting his mother, according to two retired SEAL Team 6 leaders.

There used to be a really good anonymous blog online by a supposed former seal. He related several seal stories.. but what’s striking is this: most folks don’t realize that just because you made it, means you’re going to stay on the teams. Apparently team guys keep exquisite logs of individual behavior, so the next time you see a US Navy Seal or any former military member on a news show view them w/ skepticism; they may have been a total piece of shit.

While these actions are not ideal, I don’t begrudge military people the opportunity to visit home and family.

No one should begrudge anyone the opportunity to visit home and family, military or otherwise. Unfortunately, when those with privileges via high office use that advantage to inure themselves to the costs every other soldier and person must pay in order to travel or have time with family we are condoning criminal conduct. If that conduct doesn’t even have the penalties associated with it that those of lower rank would pay in similar circumstances, then we shouldn’t be surprised to see such unpunished individuals go on to commit larger crimes with more serious consequences.

And while it’s all well to forgive and forget, especially for those who’ve actually paid their debt to society via our criminal justice system – something Zinke avoided through his high status and position – I would think we’d want people free of such records put into the highest, most consequential, offices in our land, however difficult it may be to find such people.

“And while it’s all well to forgive and forget, especially for those who’ve actually paid their debt to society via our criminal justice system – something Zinke avoided through his high status and position – … ”

When I read these sorts of articles and comments I think of Lynndie England:

I don’t feel sad for Lynndie England in any way. She was a morally bankrupt human being who had an opportunity to do what was right, and to this day does not understand what she did was wrong i.e. participating in the torture of other human beings.

In an interview Monday with The Daily, England explained that she’s haunted by the fact that the photos from Abu Gharib cost American lives but not necessarily apologetic to the victims she was torturing in those photographs.

“Their [torture victims] lives are better,” she told the iPad newspaper. “They got the better end of the deal. They weren’t innocent.”

Unless she captured each detainee on the field of battle while they were actively trying to kill her and her comrades, then she can’t possibly know if they were “innocent” or not. Moreover, it is well documented that many detained at Abu Ghraib were in fact innocent and actually turned over by rivals for rewards or to settle scores and as such were innocent. And even if they weren’t “innocent” she had no moral or legal basis (other than “just following unlawful immoral orders”) to torture any human being.

And as of 2009 she did not feel remorse and continues to mock some of the human beings she was responsible for while they were in custody.

For the rest of her life, England will be a felon, but she’ll also be a living reminder of one of the more shameful moments in recent American history. . . . What’s unclear, though, is if she feels more remorseful about what she did to those victims in those [photos] or what the photos of those actions have done to her.

I think it is abundantly clear which. She’s a sadist and/or possibly a sociopath, not a victim. And she got precisely what she deserved–she is a felon and unable, largely, to find gainful employment (I don’t wish that outcome on most felons, but people who torture other human beings–yes I do).

The only thing that possibly makes me sad is that every single person above and below her in military rank, and all civilian officials who created, countenanced or ordered torture as American policy were not similarly prosecuted.

The only other thing that makes me sad is her child has a sadist and felon for a parent who doesn’t seem to know the basic difference between moral and immoral conduct, and although that child had nothing to do with choosing his parents, he will bear the consequences of her horrific actions for likely the rest of his life.

So other than that, and I don’t mean to be overly harsh, but boo fucking hoo that Lynndie England got the short end of the stick in life. She earned it in my humble opinion. If she wants to show the slightest shred of repentance and maybe use some of her remaining days to work against torture in the future, understanding it is wrong and morally repugnant, then she deserves a second chance, forgiveness, and some compassion and empathy. But not until then as far as I’m concerned.

I have pretty much given up on The NYT and The Guardian too, so I spend a lot of my time at The Intercept. Of all the comments that I read I find yours the most insightful (Benito’s too, but he is tricky). Thanks.

The only thing that possibly makes me sad is that every single person above and below her in military rank, and all civilian officials who created, countenanced or ordered torture as American policy were not similarly prosecuted.

He will fit right in. But Trump should not be blamed for the prior behavior of the Navy.

Here is a question: When is the last time someone above the rank O2 (Navy LT, Army/AF/Marine CAPT) was ever charged or prosecuted? And more to the point, was there ever a time when any member of a special forces unit was charged or prosecuted for anything?

I second the “fit right in” statement. And, maybe we’ll see Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn charged w/ war crimes. But technically wasn’t Gen. Petraeus charged and found guilty (because he admitted to a crime) of exposing too much to his lover?

But technically wasn’t Gen. Petraeus charged and found guilty (because he admitted to a crime) of exposing too much to his lover?

Why, yes, he was. And that tony slap on the peen he received as “punishment” was an abject lesson in how powerful you need to be to avoid even that.

Or maybe it was an abject lesson in what sorts of behavior will be punished (peen pusillanimity) versus what you can get away with (damn near everything else) and still avoid even that small chastening. :-s

Here is a question: When is the last time someone above the rank O2 (Navy LT, Army/AF/Marine CAPT) was ever charged or prosecuted? And more to the point, was there ever a time when any member of a special forces unit was charged or prosecuted for anything?

This has been an ongoing investigation and prosecution(s) for very high ranking officials and lots below. This site doesn’t do multiple links well, but if you just follow the Washington Post pieces, or Navy Times, it has been covered pretty extensively. And lots of heads rolled and are still likely to roll.

Captain Robert Marasco, as well as the Commander of 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam were charged with the killing of a double agent before the charges were wisely withdrawn IMO. The CIA threw these individuals under the bus, which should surprise no one.